Thousands of shipping containers at the terminal at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey

A container ship being loaded by a portainer crane in Copenhagen Harbour

A container freight train in England

Part of an American doublestack container train

Containerization is a system of intermodal cargo transport using standard ISO containers that can be loaded on container ships, railroad cars, and trucks. There are three common standard lengths, 20 ft (6.1 m), 40 ft (12.2 m) and 45 ft (13.7 m). Container capacity (of ships, ports, etc) is measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU, or sometimes teu). A twenty-foot equivalent unit is a measure of containerized cargo equal to one standard 20 ft (length) × 8 ft (width) × 8.5 ft (height) container (approximately 39 m³). Most containers today are of the 40-ft variety and thus are 2 TEU. 45 ft containers are also designated 2 TEU. Two TEU are referred to as one FEU or "Forty-foot equivalent unit". These two terms of measurement are used interchangeably. "High cube" containers have a height of 9.5 ft (2.9 m), while half-height containers, used for heavy loads, have a height of 4.25 ft (1.3 m). Download high resolution version (2448x1632, 1628 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (2448x1632, 1628 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Photo of container ship loading at Copenhagen, with a Portainer crane behind, taken August 2003 by Stan Shebs and licensed under GFDL, 700px across File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Photo of container ship loading at Copenhagen, with a Portainer crane behind, taken August 2003 by Stan Shebs and licensed under GFDL, 700px across File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Container ship Rita being loaded at Copenhagen; note crew standing on deck, and stacks of containers on shore. ... Container ship Rita being loaded at Copenhagen by a Portainer crane A Portainer crane is a very large crane used to load and unload container ships, and only seen at container ports. ... City nickname: none Location in Denmark Area  - Total  - Water 526 km² xxx km² xx% Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density 502,204 1,116,979 954/km2 [including water] xxx/km2 [land only] Time zone Eastern: UTC+1 Latitude Longitude 55°43 N 12°34 W Copenhagen (Danish: København) is... Download high resolution version (1024x774, 233 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (1024x774, 233 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area  - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 1st UK 49,138,831 377/km² Religion... Intermodal is a term that refers to more than one mode of transport. ... Cargo is a term used to denotes goods or produce being transported generally for commercial gain, usually on a ship, plane, train or lorry. ... Logo of the International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO or iso) is an international standard-setting body made up of representatives from national standards bodies. ... Container ship Rita being loaded at Copenhagen; note crew standing on deck, and stacks of containers on shore. ... A railroad car (or, more briefly, car), also known as an item of rolling stock in British parlance, is a vehicle on a railroad or railway that is not a locomotive - one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. ... The driver of a car transporter truck prepares to offload Skoda Octavia cars in Cardiff, Wales For further uses of the word truck, see Truck (disambiguation). ... FT can mean: The EMD FT, a pioneering diesel locomotive built in the 1930s by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. ... The metre (American spelling: meter), symbol: m, is the basic unit of distance (or of length, in the parlance of the physical sciences) in the International System of Units. ...

History

Containerization is an important element of the logistics revolution that changed freight handling in the 20th century. Malcolm McLean claimed to have invented the shipping container in the 1930s in New Jersey, but only founded Sea-Land corporation in the 1950s. Logistics is the art and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, energy and information. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Malcolm McLean (1914-2001) is credited as the inventor of containerized shipping and the founder of the Sea-Land Corporation, now a part of the Maersk Group. ... Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented First atom was split with a particle accelerator Golden Age of radio begins in U.S. Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons First Kit Kat in UK The photocopier is invented by Carlson Air mail service across the Atlantic Science... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (acting) Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ... ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. ...

McLean explained that while sitting at a dock waiting for cargo he trucked in to be reloaded onto a ship, he realized that rather than loading and unloading the truck, the truck itself (with some minor modifications) could be the container that is transported.

Containerization revolutionized cargo shipping. Today, approximately 90% of cargo moves by containers stacked on transport ships. Over 200 million containers are shipped per year.

The widespread use of ISO standard containers influenced modifications in other freight moving standards, gradually forcing removable truck bodies or swap bodies into the same sizes and shapes (though without the strength needed to be stacked), and changing completely the worldwide use of freight pallets which fit into ISO containers or into commercial vehicles. A Swap body is a standard freight container which is usually built too lightly too be stacked, or to be lifted from the top, unlike the more widespread shipping containers. ... A wooden pallet For the fictional town in the Pokémon series of games, named after an artists palette, see Pallet Town. ...

Biggest Container Companies

Maersk Containers The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (Danish: A.P. Møller-Mærsk) is an international business consortium involved in a variety of business sectors, primarily transportation. ... Maersk Containers The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (Danish: A.P. Møller-Mærsk) is an international business consortium involved in a variety of business sectors, primarily transportation. ... Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is currently the second-largest container shipping line in the world. ... Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is currently the second-largest container shipping line in the world. ... CMA-CGM Group (Groupe) is a French container transportation and shipping company, founded by M. Jacques R. Saadé. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Corporation stubs | Companies for commercial item transport and distribution ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Corporation stubs | Companies for commercial item transport and distribution ... Evergreen Marine Corporation (or Evergreen Group) is a Taipei, Taiwan based containerized marine shipping company. ... Evergreen Marine Corporation (or Evergreen Group) is a Taipei, Taiwan based containerized marine shipping company. ... CMA-CGM Group (Groupe) is a French container transportation and shipping company, founded by M. Jacques R. Saadé. ... China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (abbreviated as COSCO) is one of the largest liner shipping companies serving companies all over the world. ... American President Lines Ltd. ... China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), a division of China Shipping Group (China Shipping), is a containerized marine shipping company, based in Shanghai China. ... Hanjin-Senator is achieved by combining the container fleets of Hanjin and Senator Lines, making Hanjin-Senator the seventh largest container shipping company in the world. ... The Japan-based Nippon Yusen Kaisha (日本郵船), or NYK Line, is one of the largest shipping companies in the world. ... China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), a division of China Shipping Group (China Shipping), is a containerized marine shipping company, based in Shanghai China. ... American President Lines Ltd. ... China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (abbreviated as COSCO) is one of the largest liner shipping companies serving companies all over the world. ... The Japan-based Nippon Yusen Kaisha (日本郵船), or NYK Line, is one of the largest shipping companies in the world. ...

^{(SOURCE: BRS-Alphaliner)}

* Maersk is in merger talks to acquire P & O Nedlloyd (11 May 2005). Maersk Containers The A.P. Moller-Maersk Group (Danish: A.P. Møller-Mærsk) is an international business consortium involved in a variety of business sectors, primarily transportation. ... Categories: Wikipedia cleanup | Corporation stubs | Companies for commercial item transport and distribution ...

Other container systems

• Haus-zu-Haus (Germany)
• RACE containers (Australia)

This article is about the shipping container, for alternate meanings, see RACE Railways of Australia Container Express or RACE is a slightly wider version of the standard ISO shipping container able to take 2 Australia Standard Pallets side by side. ...

Related topics

• Semi-trailer
• Portainer cranes
• Containerlift
• ULD

semi-trailer truck with sleeper behind the cab. ... Container ship Rita being loaded at Copenhagen by a Portainer crane A Portainer crane is a very large crane used to load and unload container ships, and only seen at container ports. ... A containerlift is a road going truck or semi-trailer used to hoist, stack and transport ISO standard containers. ... Unit Load Devices, or ULDs, are pallets and containers used to load luggage, freight, and mail on wide-body aircraft. ...

In Fiction

The containerization system, containers, tracking of containers, and moving of containers is extensively made use of in the HBO television series The Wire. The Wire is a police/crime television drama shown by the HBO cable network in the United States. ...

External links

• Dimensions for shipping containers (http://www.export911.com/e911/ship/dimen.htm)
• Container diagram and other information (http://www.ponl.com/topic/home_page/language_en/about_us/useful_information/cargo_care/container_talk)
• "The 20-Ton Packet" (http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.10/ports.html) - Wired Magazine October 1999
• World Port Rankings 2002, by metric tons and by TEUs, American Association of Port Authorities (http://www.aapa-ports.org/pdf/WORLD_PORT_RANKINGS_2002.xls) (xls format, 26.5kb)

Wired magazine is a full-color monthly magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993. ...